METRO VANCOUVER -- Notorious Abbotsford gangster Jarrod Bacon was sentenced to 12 years Friday for conspiring to traffic up to 100 kilograms of cocaine worth millions.

B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Austin Cullen said Bacon was an admitted criminal who showed no remorse for his role in a conspiracy to distribute a huge amount of cocaine across the Lower Mainland in the summer of 2009.

He said the sentence was on the high end of the range because Bacon was on bail when he made the coke deal and continues to be unrepentant.

And he said Bacon's enabling family circumstances mean there is little hope for rehabilitation for the 29-year-old father of a young son.

Bacon was given almost five years credit for the time he has been in jail awaiting trial, meaning his net sentence will be seven years and two months.

Dressed in red prison garb, Bacon declined to address the court, then shook his head slightly as Cullen read out his reasons for judgment.

"The accused's record and apparent lack of remorse reduces the likelihood of rehabilitation and the circumstances taken as a whole warrant a sentence that firmly repudiates the evil of people trafficking," Cullen said.

The Vancouver court room was packed with media and a few spectators, but only two Bacon supporters who were from his mother's church.

Bacon and his former father-in-law Wayne Scott were arrested in November 2009 by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit after a reverse sting using an agent identified only as GL.

GL, an acquaintance of Scott's, approached the CFSEU about becoming an agent and said he believed he could get at Bacon, whose Red Scorpion gang at the time was locked in a bloody street war against rivals from the United Nations gang.

GL, a convicted smuggler himself, convinced both Bacon and Scott he was bringing in large shipments of cocaine from Mexico and both accused bought in to the fake deal.

Both Bacon and Scott, 56, were convicted on Feb. 3, based on incriminating statements surreptitiously recorded over several months in 2009.

The sentencing for Scott, who is the grandfather of Bacon's child, has been delayed until June 7 because of health issues.

Cullen said there was evidence at trial that Bacon's parents David and Susan were aware of their son's involvement in the cocaine deal.

And he said the fact Bacon has no work history and described himself in court as a "criminal" and an "enforcer" demonstrates that he has chosen a criminal career path.

Cullen mentioned the gangland execution of Bacon's elder brother Jonathan last August in Kelowna and his younger brother Jamie facing murder charges as more evidence of Bacon's negative family environment.

CFSEU Supt. Pat Forgarty said Friday the sentence given to Bacon sends a powerful message to those who might want to emulate the gangster siblings.

"Here is the end result of the three of them. They are either dead or incarcerated," Forgarty said.

And he said "this particular Bacon won't be causing mayhem for us now."

The whole investigation" is a wonderful success -- there's no question," Forgarty said.

Crown prosecutor Peter LaPrairie had asked for a sentence of 21 years for Bacon, minus pre-trial credit, while defence lawyer Jeffrey Ray said a more fitting term for the offence was eight years given that no cocaine ever existed in the conspiracy.

Cullen disagreed with the Crown's submission on sentencing, saying most of the cases cited were for importation of cocaine -- a more serious crime.

Cullen earlier described Bacon's testimony at trial as evasive "and at times confrontational and argumentative."

Bacon had claimed on the stand that he was only humouring GL about participating in the cocaine deal so that he could get access to five-kilo sample that he planned to rob.

The cash for cocaine exchange had been scheduled for Aug. 28, 2009, but was called off after Scott saw police activity outside of a warehouse where GL purported to be holding the cocaine.

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